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SOCAL PRIVATE BOATER: Big beach croaker highlight stormy start of season
Western Outdoor NewsPublished: Mar 02, 2010
SOUTH CAL PRIVATE BOATER UPDATE
The closest thing to a season opener the Southern California saltwater arrived as this issue was going to press. March 1 marks the day when just about everything that swims (except lingcod [April 1], black seabass and great white sharks) becomes legal game. Besides the re-opening of the “groundfish complex,” three major dates occur in March — the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach starts March 3, lobster season closes March 10 and the limit on white seabass goes from three fish to one per day on March 15.
Meanwhile it was the big beach croaker from La Jolla up to the San Diego County line that got the most attention between storms.
“We weighed in a 57.8-pound white seabass this morning and a 60.7 Friday morning,” said Dana Landing Market and Fuel store manager John White. “The fish this morning was longer than the 60 pounder.”
WON Saltwater Editor Brandon Hayward fished from La Jolla to Dana Point last Thursday, finding seabass — both black and white — while fishing above Oceanside on Tim Husband’s Parker with Jack Dalla Corte and Gene Wessel.
“I know for a fact that there were at least 10 white seabass caught from Wednesday to Friday off La Jolla,” said Hayward. “It was all on squid brought down from San Mateo. There’s hardly any squid off La Jolla. Jack called me Wednesday night to see if I wanted to go with him to put his ‘plan’ to work. He’s been talking about getting bait off Mateo — like hundreds of pounds of squid — and then bringing it down to La Jolla. I passed on going, but the plan worked out. Jack went one for five in the dark, and he baited up another boat and they had three fish. Would have, should have, could have, well… at least I got to take his picture in a McDonald’s parking lot before I came into work on Wednesday.
“Wednesday night we got on Tim’s Parker hoping for a repeat of Jack’s deal. Bait was good off San Mateo, but Tim and Jack said it was nowhere near the volume they saw a few weeks earlier when they found the squid in there. It’s all small stuff — most of it is too small for the market — and most of it was spawned out.
“We started out scratch brailing and then it almost floated. We were able to get about a scoop per crowd and we got about 50 gallons of fresh dead to go with a tank of live. We never got seabass bit off La Jolla, although that same skiff Jack gave bait to used the fresh dead from the day before and got 4 fish about 75 yards from us. The biggest looked mid 40s and others were in the 30s.
“From there we drifted halibut for a bit, but Tim really wanted to look from Del Mar on up. We ended up getting on a spot with great conditions up above Oceanside, and Geno got a 41 pounder to go with a 100-pound class black. I got a smaller black. The bass fishing was wide open to the point where it was tough to get a squid to the bottom.
“The next day (Friday), Tim and his brother Dwayne said they were going back, and they were cool enough to let me tag along again. The conditions were killer again that afternoon, with water a little above 60 and perfect flow. Tim hooked two and got one, and Dwayne got railed by something. It’s tough to tell what they are when you lose fish in there, it’s a pretty gnarly reef.”
Barry Brightenburg of Fish Trap Lures was on the way up to Long Beach to set up his booth for the Fred Hall Show Monday morning when he called to give his La Jolla report.
“We didn’t catch (much), just bat rays and leopard sharks,” said Brightenburg. “There’s not much squid in La Jolla and that gets chased around by the Humboldts. The squid boats leave after one night, which shows there’s no volume there. The finbait is moving in and there’s some yellowtail around, especially since the water temperature keeps popping up after the wind dies.”
All this was before the wind and swell associated with the weekend storm came ripping through, but the buoys on Monday morning showed that water temperatures in the 60 to 61 degree range didn’t dip. It’s a phenomenon common to storms in an El Niño season, since the primarily southeast to southwest winds don’t cause any upwelling.
Mark Wisch at Pacific Edge in Huntington Harbour said he dodged the weather in his new ride last week, as the latest Pacific Edge, a 44 Pacifica, is ready for action.
“Got the new boat finally launched last Thursday and moved it from Newport to Huntington Harbour on Friday,” said Wisch. “I got Jon Anders to come with me and gave Behdad Khojasteh the day off from the storm so he could come, too. We had a bag of frozen squid and some tackle ‘in case’ we had a chance to fish on the way up. It was supposed to be blowing 30 knots, but we had maybe about 3. In other words it was flat calm. We stopped and got into a steady pick on mostly calicos, with a few on the plastics, but most on the leadhead and squid. Behdad got the jackpot sand bass. We stuck it out as long we could in hopes of a seabass, but realized we still had to get under the bridge and retrieve vehicles.”
Wisch noted the bucket of the Pacifica had six feet of clearance going under the Coast Highway Bridge into Huntington Harbour on a 3.5-foot tide. He also noted that his last vessel, a 31 Innovator, has been completely fixed up and cleaned up and is for sale. You can check it out on www.pacificedgetackle.com.
Bob Vanian at 976bite.com said the good weather days provided some good fishing for rockfish in Mexican waters and there were some bass, sculpin and giant squid biting in fairly good numbers for those fishing spots along the San Diego County coast and out at the upper end of the Nine Mile Bank.
Some productive coastal areas for the bass and sculpin in the San Diego and Oceanside regions have been the Imperial Beach Pipeline, the hard bottom into the north and to the northwest of Buoy #3 at Point Loma, the Jetty Kelp in front of Mission Bay and the Variety Kelp at the lower end of La Jolla. Going further up the coast, try the Anderson, Cardiff and Buccaneer pipelines as well as the artificial reefs in front of Oceanside Harbor.
Rockfish continue to bite well at spots around the Coronado Islands. One of the best areas continues to be the lower end of the Nine Mile Bank while fishing in Mexican waters. A couple of other productive rockfish zones around the Coronado Islands have been the hard bottom to the north and northwest of North Island and along the outer ridges of the South Kelp Ridge below South Island.
The giant squid continue to bite out at the Nine Mile Bank. The bite has become a bit more hit or miss than red-hot, but most boats seem to be able to continue to go out and pick away at the squid and put together a decent catch after putting in some time. The upper end of the Nine Mile Bank continues to be the best spot while fishing the outside drop-off of the bank. The giant squid have mostly been in the 20- to 40-pound range with a few bigger squid to around 60 pounds caught as well.
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SOUTH CAL PRIVATE BOATER UPDATE
The closest thing to a season opener the Southern California saltwater arrived as this issue was going to press. March 1 marks the day when just about everything that swims (except lingcod [April 1], black seabass and great white sharks) becomes legal game. Besides the re-opening of the “groundfish complex,” three major dates occur in March — the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach starts March 3, lobster season closes March 10 and the limit on white seabass goes from three fish to one per day on March 15. Meanwhile it was the big beach croaker from La Jolla up to the San Diego County line that got the most attention between storms. “We weighed in a 57.8-pound white seabass this morning and a 60.7 Friday morning,” said Dana Landing Market and Fuel store manager John White. “The fish this morning was longer than the 60 pounder.” WON Saltwater Editor Brandon Hayward fished from La Jolla to Dana Point last Thursday, finding seabass — both black and white — while fishing above Oceanside on Tim Husband’s Parker with Jack Dalla Corte and Gene Wessel. “I know for a fact that there were at least 10 white seabass caught from Wednesday to Friday off La Jolla,” said Hayward. “It was all on squid brought down from San Mateo. There’s hardly any squid off La Jolla. Jack called me Wednesday night to see if I wanted to go with him to put his ‘plan’ to work. He’s been talking about getting bait off Mateo — like hundreds of pounds of squid — and then bringing it down to La Jolla. I passed on going, but the plan worked out. Jack went one for five in the dark, and he baited up another boat and they had three fish. Would have, should have, could have, well… at least I got to take his picture in a McDonald’s parking lot before I came into work on Wednesday. “Wednesday night we got on Tim’s Parker hoping for a repeat of Jack’s deal. Bait was good off San Mateo, but Tim and Jack said it was nowhere near the volume they saw a few weeks earlier when they found the squid in there. It’s all small stuff — most of it is too small for the market — and most of it was spawned out. “We started out scratch brailing and then it almost floated. We were able to get about a scoop per crowd and we got about 50 gallons of fresh dead to go with a tank of live. We never got seabass bit off La Jolla, although that same skiff Jack gave bait to used the fresh dead from the day before and got 4 fish about 75 yards from us. The biggest looked mid 40s and others were in the 30s. “From there we drifted halibut for a bit, but Tim really wanted to look from Del Mar on up. We ended up getting on a spot with great conditions up above Oceanside, and Geno got a 41 pounder to go with a 100-pound class black. I got a smaller black. The bass fishing was wide open to the point where it was tough to get a squid to the bottom. “The next day (Friday), Tim and his brother Dwayne said they were going back, and they were cool enough to let me tag along again. The conditions were killer again that afternoon, with water a little above 60 and perfect flow. Tim hooked two and got one, and Dwayne got railed by something. It’s tough to tell what they are when you lose fish in there, it’s a pretty gnarly reef.” Barry Brightenburg of Fish Trap Lures was on the way up to Long Beach to set up his booth for the Fred Hall Show Monday morning when he called to give his La Jolla report. “We didn’t catch (much), just bat rays and leopard sharks,” said Brightenburg. “There’s not much squid in La Jolla and that gets chased around by the Humboldts. The squid boats leave after one night, which shows there’s no volume there. The finbait is moving in and there’s some yellowtail around, especially since the water temperature keeps popping up after the wind dies.” All this was before the wind and swell associated with the weekend storm came ripping through, but the buoys on Monday morning showed that water temperatures in the 60 to 61 degree range didn’t dip. It’s a phenomenon common to storms in an El Niño season, since the primarily southeast to southwest winds don’t cause any upwelling. Mark Wisch at Pacific Edge in Huntington Harbour said he dodged the weather in his new ride last week, as the latest Pacific Edge, a 44 Pacifica, is ready for action. “Got the new boat finally launched last Thursday and moved it from Newport to Huntington Harbour on Friday,” said Wisch. “I got Jon Anders to come with me and gave Behdad Khojasteh the day off from the storm so he could come, too. We had a bag of frozen squid and some tackle ‘in case’ we had a chance to fish on the way up. It was supposed to be blowing 30 knots, but we had maybe about 3. In other words it was flat calm. We stopped and got into a steady pick on mostly calicos, with a few on the plastics, but most on the leadhead and squid. Behdad got the jackpot sand bass. We stuck it out as long we could in hopes of a seabass, but realized we still had to get under the bridge and retrieve vehicles.” Wisch noted the bucket of the Pacifica had six feet of clearance going under the Coast Highway Bridge into Huntington Harbour on a 3.5-foot tide. He also noted that his last vessel, a 31 Innovator, has been completely fixed up and cleaned up and is for sale. You can check it out on www.pacificedgetackle.com. Bob Vanian at 976bite.com said the good weather days provided some good fishing for rockfish in Mexican waters and there were some bass, sculpin and giant squid biting in fairly good numbers for those fishing spots along the San Diego County coast and out at the upper end of the Nine Mile Bank. Some productive coastal areas for the bass and sculpin in the San Diego and Oceanside regions have been the Imperial Beach Pipeline, the hard bottom into the north and to the northwest of Buoy #3 at Point Loma, the Jetty Kelp in front of Mission Bay and the Variety Kelp at the lower end of La Jolla. Going further up the coast, try the Anderson, Cardiff and Buccaneer pipelines as well as the artificial reefs in front of Oceanside Harbor. Rockfish continue to bite well at spots around the Coronado Islands. One of the best areas continues to be the lower end of the Nine Mile Bank while fishing in Mexican waters. A couple of other productive rockfish zones around the Coronado Islands have been the hard bottom to the north and northwest of North Island and along the outer ridges of the South Kelp Ridge below South Island. The giant squid continue to bite out at the Nine Mile Bank. The bite has become a bit more hit or miss than red-hot, but most boats seem to be able to continue to go out and pick away at the squid and put together a decent catch after putting in some time. The upper end of the Nine Mile Bank continues to be the best spot while fishing the outside drop-off of the bank. The giant squid have mostly been in the 20- to 40-pound range with a few bigger squid to around 60 pounds caught as well. |
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